Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.

Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things--childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves--that go on slipping , like sand, through our fingers.

Everybody loves 'The Wire,' and I think it's okay, but in the end it's just a police series.

If you give in to the threat of violence, if you give in to bullying, what you know is that there will be more bullying. There will not be less bullying. If you appease the bully, you make sure that he will bully you some more. Not less. It doesn't solve the problem. It makes the problem worse.

You can find shame in every house, burning in an ashtray, hanging framed upon a wall, covering a bed. But nobody notices it any more.

I for one don't need a supreme "sacred" arbiter in order to be a moral being.

Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms.